“Xiao Xie.”
“The shift manager wants you to take charge of private box A8888.”
When Fang Jiayun arrived at the lounge, a handsome youth wearing a white shirt, a bow tie, and a waiter’s vest was organizing items in front of the cabinet.
Hearing this, Xie Yi raised his chin slightly and emitted a brief syllable from the bridge of his nose: “Mn.”
Looking at Xie Yi’s excessively pretty face, Fang Jiayun still kindly offered a reminder.
“There is a bunch of wealthy young masters inside A8888, and they play pretty wild. Just drop off the drinks and get out of there quickly.”
Even though he had been colleagues with Xie Yi for less than a year and found his personality somewhat reclusive and aloof with minimal communication, they were still coworkers after all. Whatever warning he could offer, he felt he should give.
After all, that face had indeed brought Xie Yi no shortage of trouble.
Xie Yi paused in his tracks and nodded in acknowledgment: “Thank you.”
A8888 was their bar’s VIP private box. Fortunately, their bar was small and low-end, so even the VIPs were just slightly wealthy second-generation scions who could never touch anyone from the upper crust.
Xie Yi was not someone who failed to appreciate goodwill, and he accepted his colleague’s kind reminder.
Inside private box A8888 at the bar.
A young man with grandma-gray dyed hair spoke up: “Ah, A-Mian is late. He has to punish himself with three drinks.”
He wore a thin zip-up hoodie and ripped jeans, looking rebellious and unruly.
He immediately reached out to shove the handsome man in a black shirt sitting beside him, saying, “Did you hear that? It was clearly you who insisted on coming to this bar, yet you ended up dragging your feet.”
Hearing this, Fu Mian leaned back lazily, the corners of his thin lips curving upward as he agreed, “Fine.”
“Hahahaha, A-Mian is a good sport!”
“When Brother Fu says he will drink, he never hesitates.”
“What ‘A-Mian’ or ‘Brother Fu’? Things are different now. We should all formally address him as President Fu.”
As soon as these words were dropped, since they were a group of friends who had hung out for years and frequently joked around, everyone burst into cheerful laughter.
Zhuang Yi snorted softly: “That goes without saying. If he isn’t going to be a good sport, I will have to drink him under the table myself!”
His relationship with Fu Mian was the closest of all. The two were not only high school classmates but also university alumni, sharing an exceptionally tight bond.
At that moment, an untimely voice chimed in with a question: “By the way, did Brother Fu go abroad because he wanted to try a new flavor? There are so many high-end bars in the city center, yet he didn’t go to any of them.”
“What do you know? This is called having a sense of style.” After finishing his remark, that person looked toward Fu Mian with a slightly flattering expression and asked, “Does Brother Fu know about what happened to the Xie family?”
Fu Mian lowered his gaze, his expression unreadable under the dim lighting: “I know.”
“I remember how that young master of the Xie family used to rely on his family’s power and influence to give our A-Mian a hard time every single day. Now that the Xie family is gone, it can only be considered his just deserts.”
“Speaking of which, I seem to have heard that the young master of the Xie family didn’t even finish university.”
Zhuang Yi clarified: “That is just a rumor. He just didn’t go to class very often when the Xie family collapsed; he already graduated.”
Fu Mian remained silent.
This led Zhuang Yi, sitting right next to him, to instantly notice that his friend’s air pressure was a bit low, seeming to radiate an aura of impatience.
Terrified that this master would get angry, Zhuang Yi silently cursed the other guy for bringing up such an unlucky topic during such a relaxed drinking session.
He quickly spoke up to cut off the other person’s words: “Alright, let’s drop that kind of talk. How grim.”
Although Fu Mian was somewhat cold by nature, he was actually decent when it came to treating people, and many liked being friends with him.
Anyone who knew him also knew that there was only one person he had ever loathed in his entire life, and that person was Xie Yi.
That person finally realized that Fu Mian’s expression looked off, hurriedly zipped his mouth, and explained: “I just wanted to let Brother Fu know about this to help him vent his frustration. I didn’t mean anything else.”
Fu Mian lifted his eyelids: “It’s fine.”
Zhuang Yi smiled and remarked, “I bet our A-Mian doesn’t even remember who that person was.”
Seeming tinged with mockery, the indifferent tone carried a sense of nonchalance: “Whether that person lives or dies has nothing to do with me.”
Fu Mian did not refute the statement; he merely pressed his lips together.
Right at that moment, everyone heard a knock at the door.
Zhuang Yi shifted the topic: “It must be the waiter. Everyone, order whatever you want later, and put it all on A-Mian’s tab.”
He then raised his head and shouted aloud, “Come in.”
The door was pushed open immediately, and a youth wearing a waiter’s uniform walked in carrying a tray.
Even though it was a cheap shirt and suit trousers, worn on him, they made his figure look exceptionally tall and well-proportioned. A black bow tie sat right below his prominent Adam’s apple, and his straight, slender legs carried him step-by-step into the room.
The slightly noisy sounds inside instantly fell silent, and all eyes snapped uniformly toward Xie Yi.
Even Fu Mian, who had always remained indifferent to everything, raised his head as well.
Upon seeing the familiar face, Fu Mian’s previously calm eyes grew profound and slightly heavy, and the hand resting on the sofa shifted slightly to the side.
The black shirt made him look noble and aloof, and his handsome, calm profile looked as though it were brushed with a layer of gold under the box’s lighting, while the other half remained hidden in the darkness, obscuring his expression.
Xie Yi felt not the slightest bit of discomfort; he was already long accustomed to this kind of scrutiny. No matter where he went, he always drew numerous gazes.
Keeping his head lowered all along as if he hadn’t noticed the existence of those stares, he expertly picked up the wine menu and walked deeper into the private box. Perhaps due to smoking shortly before, his voice turned slightly hoarse: “What kind of drinks would everyone like? Our establishment has…”
Seeing the familiar face, Zhuang Yi suddenly felt that some things in this world were truly impossible to put into words. He pressed his tongue against his upper jaw and gave a light click of his tongue: “Lift your head up.”
Hearing this, Xie Yi slowly raised his head, instantly freezing the moment he caught sight of Zhuang Yi’s face.
As if reacting to instinct or muscle memory, Xie Yi unconsciously glanced toward the side of the other man, locking eyes directly with Fu Mian.
Seeing the familiar person, his pupils contracted in a tiny, imperceptible shudder, though it vanished almost instantly, leaving his heart aching and sour.
He hadn’t expected that even after five years, he would still cross paths with someone from his past.
That guy whom he had forced onto his bed through all sorts of means back then, Fu Mian.
Five years had passed, yet the youthful aura on the other man’s face had long since faded. No matter when it was, the moment Fu Mian saw him, his expression would turn cold to the extreme, treating him like an entirely insignificant stranger, or even an enemy.
Xie Yi panicked and looked away, his fingers involuntarily tightening their grip on the wine menu as a helpless urge to flee washed over him.
His heart felt as though it had been ruthlessly clenched by a giant hand, filling him with dread and melancholy.
Yuncheng was so vast; why on earth did he have to run into him under circumstances like this?
“Well, well, it really is you, the young master of the Xie family.”
Seeing Xie Yi, Zhuang Yi still couldn’t control his temper, not just for his own sake, but even more so because he wanted to stand up for his good brother. His tone unconsciously turned sarcastic.
Xie Yi reined in his impulse to run, lowering his gaze to conceal his disheveled composure. The sharp edges he once possessed had long been worn flat by life as he said calmly, “I am no longer any sort of young master.”
Hearing those words, Zhuang Yi seemed somewhat surprised. He raised an eyebrow, looking Xie Yi up and down as if meeting him for the very first time, and uttered in sheer astonishment: “You really have changed a lot.”
If it were the Xie Yi from five years ago, upon hearing such sarcastic remarks from him, the guy would have long since arrogantly stepped forward to give him a hard time.
Back then, Zhuang Yi had suffered quite a few hidden losses at that person’s hands.
If it weren’t for having a powerful and influential father, what capability did Xie Yi ever have to run amok?